Today USS Arizona Memorial reminds us of its magnificent history but very less number of people know about the legacy it left behind. You might have heard that USS Arizona was sunk in the Second World War by the Japanese Navy but you may not be aware of the some of the most amazing facts related to this Battleship. We will see all those amazing facts in below section. More on wikipedia.

40 Most Amazing Facts About USS Arizona Battleship

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• First of all it was named in honor of the 48th state that joined the Union - Arizona.
• It was the second and last of the Pennsylvania-class of "super-dreadnought" battleships ever built for the United States Navy in the mid 1910s.
• The keel of the USS Arizona was laid down on 16th March 1914 and the ship was launched 15 months later.
• It had an overall length of 608 feet (185.3 m), a beam of 97 feet (29.6 m) (at the waterline), and a draft of 29 feet 3 inches (8.9 m) at deep load making it the largest and most heavily armed ship in the Navy fleet at that time.
• The building of the ship was started in 1913 and it was commissioned in 1916.
• Arizona was one of a number of American ships that briefly escorted President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference.
• It was regularly used for training exercises between the wars, including the annual Fleet Problems.
• The crew of USS Arizona provided the aid to an earthquake hit area of California in 1933.
• Arizona also served as filming locations for few of the movies.
• It was one of the few ships which was irreparably damaged during World War II. Most of the other attacked ships returned to the active service duty after several years.
• The wreck of Arizona remains at Pearl Harbor to commemorate the men of her crew lost that December morning in 1941.
• The attack on Pearl Harbor caused the United States to join the World War II.
• During the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Arizona was attacked by ten Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers, hitting it from amidships to stern and in the bow area.
• The Arizona sank in about 40 feet (12 metres) below water, though some parts were not submerged, and the ship continued to burn for more than two days.
• The wreck of USS Arizona is still at the floor of Pearl Harbor.
• Before the Japanese attack on Arizona, it took loads of fuel for a trip later that month. That fuel still seeps out of Arizona’s wreckage today at a rate of 8 liters per day. It is called “The Black Tears of Arizona.”
• The Arizona is commemorated by a concrete memorial that spans the wreckage.
• In 1958 legislation was approved that called for the creation of a memorial to the Arizona.
• The memorial was constructed entirely from the donation instead of federal money.
• Around 10% of the total cost of the USS Arizona memorial was raised by the KING, Elvis Presley.
• USS Arizona Memorial was designed by Alfred Preis, an Austrian-born architect who was sent to a U.S. internment camp after the Pearl Harbor attack.
• The USS Arizona’s Rear Admiral, Isaac C. Kidd, died during the Japanese air strike on the ship. He turned out to be the first U.S Navy flag officer killed by enemy fire in the Pacific theaters.
• The death toll on Arizona was around 1,177.
• According to an estimate some 335 crew member survived the attack on battleship.
• The ship herself was designated a National Historic Landmark on 5 May 1989.
• Although the Arizona was deleted from the navy’s register in late 1942, the ship was symbolically recommissioned in 1950.
• Several of the crew members who survived the attack requested that this site serve as their burial ground.